Georgetown University: Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs: Political Theologies: Past, Present, and Future

What are the main trends and challenges for political theologies today? What should political theology be in the 21st century? This conference will bring together leading scholars from several disciplines to examine political theologies in the Abrahamic traditions, both historically and with an eye towards their adaptation to globalization, secularization, and pluralism.

Keynote Conversation, Wednesday October 15, 2008:
Mark Lilla (Columbia)
John Milbank (U. Nottingham)

Conference Panels, Thursday October 16, 2008

Domesticating Religion: The Abrahamic Faiths and the Rise of the Democratic State
Contributors will provide overviews of the development of political theology within a given tradition, with special attention to questions of the legitimation of political power and the status of equality and individual rights.
Paul Heck (Georgetown)
Jerome Copulsky (Goucher College)
Eric Gregory (Princeton)
Patrick Deneen (Georgetown)
Michael Kessler (Georgetown)

Confronting Pluralism: Main Trends in Political Theologies Today
Contributors will examine present debates around these issues within a given faith community, with special attention to the invocation of authoritative scripture, tradition, the challenges of pluralistic societies, and dominant narratives about the intersection of religion and modernity.
Chuck Mathewes (U. Virginia)
Jacques Berlinerblau (Georgetown)
Andreas Christmann (U. of Manchester)
Hent De Vries (Johns Hopkins)

The Way Forward: Political Theologies and the American Future
Contributors will examine the future of political theologies in the US context through an examination of the main currents of thought within Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. A critical issue is how a majority-Protestant and the Judeo-Christian political culture will adapt to a more visible Catholic and growing Muslim presence in the public sphere.
David Novak (Toronto)
Damon Linker (writer and public intellectual)
Robin Lovin (SMU/Perkins)

Participating in absentia:
José Casanova (Georgetown)
Jean Elshtain (Chicago and Georgetown)